The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015, are automatically nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on October 23, 2015, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

This brisk narrative of the discovery and settling of the American West is based on the script for the 12-hour PBS series by Stephen Ives and Ken Burns. As with Burns's earlier acclaimed series on the Civil War, this text, tracing the successive waves of explorers, trappers, settlers, missionaries, soldiers, wanderers, and hustlers who rolled across the vast western landscape, depends heavily on quotes from letters, diaries, and memoirs. Ward (who wrote the book based on Burns's Civil War series) weaves these materials into a clear, precise text, stressing the varied, often bitter or violent, experiences of individuals attempting to make a home in a hard land, and paying particular angry attention to the destruction of Native American societies. The work is illustrated by several hundred period photographs, many of them uncommon, drawn from the series. ($60.00; Sept. 16, 1996; 464 pages.; ISBN 0-316- 92236-6)

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